5. THE INTELLECTUALLY GIFTED CHILD The argument that American society has supplied colleges and universities for the intellectually gifted does not take into consideration that not all superior students were economically able to attend college. In a study during the depression years of 1930 to 1940 by Goetsch (1940) presented an alarming picture of the waste of human resources resulting from economic factors. Ninety percent of the superior high school graduates who came from families in the higher-income groups were able to attend college, but less than 20 percent of superior high school graduates from the lower-income groups attended college. According to this study, American society was providing higher education only for superior students who were economically able to attend college. One of the effects of World War II was the creation of the G.I. Bill, which offered stipends to veterans for higher education. This bill, to some extent, and for a limited time, tended to offset the implications of the Goetsch study, since it provided the opportunity to go to college for many young men and women who otherwise could not have afforded it (Kirk, 1972, p. 107). The public interest in the special education of the gifted child in the United States, not only at the college level but at the elementary and secondary levels as wells, stems from a number of national and international situations. Gallagher (1960) proposed these major reasons for this acceleration of interest: The direct conflict between two great world powers has undeniable dramatic implications. There is reason to believe, however, that there are other changes taking place in the world culture which may, in the long run, cause more attention to be directed to the educational opportunities for intellectually superior children. There has been much talk of the "Population Explosion" in recent years. Not much has been said about the "Knowledge Explosion."...Only a half-century ago, many fields and professions that are important to our lives were nonexistent. Entire areas of inquiry and work such as economics, sociology, group dynamics, atomic physics, radiology, electronics, servo- mechanisms, jet propulsion, and many others were either unthought of or in their infancy. In some of these fields today books sometimes become outdated before they come off the presses (pp. 1-2). With the demise of the Soviet government in 1989, the first reason mentioned above became moot. However, the second reason, the knowledge explosion, or the onset of the information age, certainly makes the acceleration of interest in the education of the gifted extremely pertinent. Who are the gifted? There are many kinds of talented and gifted children, and no real agreement as to who is a gifted child. The major reason for disagreement is that among the many kinds of talents there are various degrees of talents. Guilford (1959) analyzed the structure of the intellect and postulated there were as many as 120 different intellectual abilities. He wrote: If a person is facile in one set of abilities, he may be talented along one line; if facile in a different set of abilities, he may show quite different talents. Some authorities use the term "gifted" to refer only to those highly capable in a wide variety of abilities, whereas others use it to mean anyone highly competent in any one area. Some think of giftedness only in terms of a high IQ or a high degree of abstract and symbolic learning ability; others include facility in music, art, mechanics, or creativity ( p.108). Sumption and Luecking (1960) defined the gifted as "Those who possess a superior central nervous system characterized by the potential to perform tasks requiring a comparatively high degree of intellectual abstraction or imagination or both." Fiegler and Bish (1959) used the following definition: "... the term gifted encompasses those children who possess a superior intellectual potential and functional ability to achieve academically in the top 15 to 20 percent of the school population; and/or talent of a high order in such special areas as mathematics, mechanics, science, expressive arts, creative writing, music, and social leadership; and a unique ability to deal with their environment" (p. 409). Lucito (1963) suggested a definition which included creativity and proposed such criteria as productive and valuative thinking as complementary to understanding the nature of the gifted individual. "The gifted are those learners whose potential intellectual powers are at such a high ideational level in both productive and valuative thinking that it can be reasonably assumed they could be the future problem solvers, innovators, and evaluators of the culture if adequate educational experiences are provided (p. 184). In defining giftedness there is a current effort to avoid depending too heavily on the IQ, but when it comes to identifying or selecting gifted children most schools and research workers rely on a standardized intelligence test, partly because there are few other measuring devices. Perhaps some of the current attempts to measure creativity as another facet of intelligence may bear fruit. When the IQ is used to define intelligence, there is a wide divergence in determining the cutoff point above which a child is considered gifted. Various authorities for various purposes have used anywhere from 115 IQ to 180 IQ as the dividing line. Gloss and Jones (1968) report that of 159 school districts in a midwestern state, 7 percent accept children with IQ's below 114 as gifted, another 7 percent accept children with IQ's below 114 as gifted, another 7 percent accept 114 to 119, and only one district required IQ's of 140 and above. DeHaan and Havighurst (1957) divided the intellectually gifted into two groups for educational purposes. The highest one-tenth of one percent they called "first-order" or extremely gifted and the remaining upper 10 percent "second-order" gifted. The extremely gifted are very rare and may require a different kind of education from that given the second-order gifted. For all practical purposes, intellectual giftedness can be referred to as the superior ability to deal with facts, ideas, or relationships, whether this ability comes from a high IQ or a less well-defined creativity. Those with special aptitudes in more specific fields as talented, such as: 1. The socially talented. 2. The mechanically talented. 3. The artistically talented. 4. The musically talented. 5. The physically talented. 6. The linguistically talented. 7. The academically talented (Kirk, 1972, p. 110). To be highly endowed in an intellectual field requires a gifted intellect, but the direction which that intellect follows is dependent on many other factors such as experience, motivation, interest, emotionally stability, hero worship, parental urging, and even chance. Kirk (1972) concluded that superior intelligence is only one factor in determining success, achievement, or contribution to society, and still remains a basic ingredient in what is called, giftedness. Other qualities are necessary for successful accomplishment, but the major criteria here is with cognitive and reasoning abilities. There are gifted children who are not performing because of emotional, motivational, or circumstantial factors. There are so called gifted children who are not outstanding in creativity. Finally, there are so-called gifted children who are using talents in socially unacceptable ways. The common denominator is intellectual superiority (p. 110). Kirk (1972) listed the following distinguishing characteristics as marks of the gifted child: 1. Learns rapidly and easily. 2. Uses a lot of common sense and practical knowledge. 3. Reasons things out, thinks clearly, recognizes relationships, comprehends meanings. 4. Retains what he has heard or read without much rote drill. 5. Uses a large number of words easily and accurately. 6. Can read books that are one to two years in advance of the rest of the class. 7. Performs difficult mental tasks. 8. Asks many questions. Is interested in a wide range of things. 9. Does some academic work one to two years in advance of the class. 10. Is original, uses good but unusual methods or ideas. 11. Is alert, keenly observant, responds quickly (p. 44). Characteristics of Intellectually Gifted Children. Following his revision and publication of the Binet-Simon tests of intelligence in 1916, Lewis A Terman, a distinguished professor of psychology at Stanford University, became interested in gifted children. He devoted the rest of his life to the study of 1528 gifted children whom he identified in 1920. He followed this group for 35 years until he death in 1956. During this period of time he was instrumental in writing a series of books entitled Genetic Studies of Genius (1925-1959). Some of the characteristics he found which identified gifted children were: 1. Physical Characteristics. In physique and general health the high-IQ children surpassed the best general standards of American children. 2. Intellectual and Educational Characteristics. The intellectual superiority of Terman's subjects was established when they were children. When the gifted children entered school at the usual age of 6.25 years, nearly one-half learned to read before the age of 6. 3. Interests and Preoccupations. In scholastic areas the gifted children were more interested than the controls in abstract subjects such as literature, debate, and ancient history, and less interested in "practical" such as penmanship and manual training. Gifted and controls were equally interested in games and sports. 4. Character Tests and Trait Ratings. A battery of 7 character tests showed gifted children above average on every rating. 5. Mental Health and General Adjustment. In 1945, more than 20 years after the study began, the subjects were followed up on. Terman concluded that the superior emotional adjustment seen in childhood was maintained in adulthood. 6. Marriage, Divorce, Fertility. The marriage rate for the gifted group as adults was about the same as that for the general population and higher than was found for college graduates. The divorce rate was somewhat less than that for the general population. A total of 1525 offspring of the gifted group have been tested. The mean IQ is 132.7. About one-third tested above 140 and only 2 percent below 100. In general, the gifted group tended slightly toward more happier marriages, fewer divorces, and fewer offspring. 7. Vocational and Occupational Status. The occupational status of the gifted men reported in 1955 showed about eight times as many men in the professions as was true for the general population. The incomes for the gifted group were considerably higher than the national average. Other Research On Characteristics of Gifted Children Intellectual giftedness is no respecter of color, race, or creed. It is found in every class and culture. According to some studies (Barbe, 1956; Terman and Oden, 1947), there are proportionately fewer gifted identified among Blacks than among Caucasians. Strodtbeck (1958) suggested a possible relationship between the upward mobility or high achievement of Jewish groups and a belief that man can master his environment. The myth that many or most gifted children are social misfits and rejected by their classmates has been disproved. Terman and Oden (1947) found the superior and emotional traits of the gifted. Miller (1956) found that gifted children were significantly more popular than average or retarded pupils. Kerstetter (1952) studied a group of highly gifted children (IQ 160 and above) in special classes and found them, on the whole, to be socially well-adjusted. Kerstetter saw no relationship between level of intelligence and poor social adjustment. Gallagher (1958) and Martyn (1957) both found that the gifted children rated as high as or higher than the average in popularity. Getzels and Jackson (1960) used tests of creativity to differentiate two groups of high school students: a "high creative" group who were among the top 20 percent on creativity tests but who did not fall into the top 20 percent on intelligence tests (mean IQ 127); and a "high IQ" group who were among the top 20 percent on intelligence tests but who did not fall in the top 20 percent on creativity tests (mean IQ 150). In spite of the 23 IQ points, the "high IQ" group did not exceed the "high creativity" group on standardized achievement tests, but they were preferred by the teachers. This study was replicated by Torrance (1967). He obtained essentially the same results. The "high creative" children are not as well are not as well rated sociometrically, since they may seem "peculiar." Evidence submitted by Smith (1959) and Lucito (1959) suggested that gifted children in general are more independent and less conforming in behavior than average. It remains to be shown whether this trait is related to degree or type of intelligence. Martinson (1966) challenged the assumption that creativity is not related to intelligence and noted that our tests of creativity have not been adequately validated and that until they are we should not consider substituting them for our present measures. A higher than average IQ seems to be necessary for high creativity, but above some undetermined minimum level there is little or no correlation between creativity and intelligence. This is corroborated by Gowan (1967), who stated that "whereas intelligence and creativity are highly correlated below about 120 IQ, above that figure they are nearly independent variables" (p. 9). Torrance (1962) also believes that a minimum IQ of 115 to 120 is probably necessary for the emergence of a high degree of creativity. He found that among children with IQ's between 132 and 186 there was a negligible correlation (p > .03) between IQ and creativity. Martinson and Seagoe (1967), on the other hand, found a higher correlation between IQ and judges' ratings of creative products than they found between Guilford tests for divergent thinking and the judges' ratings. They also found that higher IQ groups with a mean IQ of 142.7 produced more creative products than did low IQ groups with a mean IQ of 107.5. The Stanford-Binet IQ's, however, were not significantly related to the Guilford tests of divergent thinking. Damm (1970 found that children who were high on both intelligence and creativity tests were superior in self-actualization. Among the intercorrelations, the highest (.33) was between intelligence (California Test of Mental Maturity) and creativity (Remote Associates Test). The Underachieving Gifted Child. Studies of underachieving gifted children have been made by various investigators. Gowan (1957) summarized many studies on underachieving gifted children and speculated that the underachiever is "a kind of intellectual delinquent who withdraws from goals, activities, and active social participation generally. As a child his initial attempts at creative accomplishment may not have been seen by others as 'worthwhile' but only as 'queer' or 'different'" (p. 101). Gowan believed that this blocking of rewards of deviant achievement has blunted the child's work drives and stifled his creativity. Gallagher (1960) surveyed the literature concerning underachievers and presented a combination of events which lead to underachievement among children of superior intelligence. 1. The underachieving child grows up in, or belongs to, a cultural group which does not value education, independence, or individual achievement. 2. He has poor parental relationships, in which the parents, especially the father, either show limited interest in academic matters to try to put undue pressure on their children to succeed. 3. The child, unable to obtain satisfaction from parental contacts, seeks out his peer group for satisfying human relationships. 4. These children will be faced by teachers and other school officials who ask them to meet standards of behavior which are not possible for them, and who treat these children, in many ways, as their parents do. The children thus place the teacher and the school in the same authority category as parents and reject them and their program. 5. The school, in its attempt to deal with these nonconforming and angry children, is likely to take more strict and repressive measures which will turn the children even more emphatically against the school (pp. 42-43). In a later publication, Gallagher (1964) stated: It appears that low-producing gifted-children need to be separated into two major categories. The first consists of youngsters who come from good cultural environments...where the difficulties center in the personality of the student and in his often unhappy family relationships...The second large group of underachievers would be those coming from lower-class backgrounds where the cultural environment is generally favorable (p. 74). In summarizing the literature on underachieving gifted children, Gold (1965) stated, "Concerted efforts to relieve underachievement have generally failed of their purpose when delayed of inception till the senior high school. A continuous program of guidance, diagnosis, and identification needs its beginning apparently in the primary grades (p. 411). Educating Gifted Children. Kirk (1972) described special provisions which are made to adapt the school program to the abilities of gifted children include: (1) accelerating, enriching, or grouping children, (2) devising a curriculum suitable to children with high abilities, (3) utilizing appropriate instructional procedures (p. 135). Acceleration of gifted pupils has been practiced in various forms for many years. It refers to (1) admitting gifted children to kindergarten or first grade according to mental age rather than chronological age, (2) skipping grades, (3) telescoping grades, (4) early admission to secondary schools or colleges, and (5) other methods such as passing courses in high schools or colleges by examination. All of these administrative procedures are designed to cut down the time a person must remain in traditional school. Enrichment can be used if the gifted child is not to be accelerated. The term "enrichment" has been applied to an adaptation of the regular program to provide educational experiences over and above those in the regular program. Gallagher (1959) defined enrichment as "the type of activity devoted to the further development of the particular intellectual skills and talents of the gifted child" (p. 21). Administratively, enrichment can include: 1. Encouraging teachers in the regular grades to challenge the gifted child with additional readings, extra assignments, and an opportunity to participate in other than class activities. 2. Grouping children in a class, so that the few gifted children are in a group by themselves, and challenging their interests and abilities with problems requiring independent research and thought, rather than memory processes. 3. Offering additional learning such as the study of a foreign language or typing in the elementary school. 4. Employing a special teacher for the gifted in a school system who can (1) identify the gifted children who need additional instruction (2) assist the regular teacher to secure additional assignments and experiences (3) counsel with the gifted child regarding his extracurricular activities and supplementary school assignments, and (4) to hold seminars or special classes for a part of the day in special areas of interest for the gifted children in the school. 5. Encouraging teachers to hold high standards of achievement for the gifted child, and to help him develop habits of independent work, initiative, and creativity. Kough (1960) listed the requirements for enrichment in the regular classroom. He stated that unless these are met, enrichment becomes an illusion. 1. Has each classroom teacher identified and listed the students who are gifted? 2. Can each classroom teacher describe the specific curriculum modification being made for each bright youngster? 3. Does some person have supervisory responsibility for the entire program (p. 47)? Kirk (1972) described several methods used to adapt and enrich the curriculum for gifted children in the regular school. These included (1) grouping the children within a regular class in the elementary school, (2) organizing special sections in the subject matters (e.g., English, science, mathematics, and social studies) in the upper elementary school and in the secondary school, (3) offering advanced courses for superior students in the secondary schools, and (4) offering honors courses for the superior students in college (p. 141). Another methods included (1) modified special classes, (2) special classes, (3) special schools, and (4) evaluation of special groupings. Instructional Procedures Adaptation of instruction is dependent upon what is to be taught and the characteristics of the individuals. Kirk (1972) suggested that two strategies be employed in teaching the gifted child are: (1) developing creativity, and (2) modifying instructional procedures to meet the needs of the children. Wilson (1958) suggested to develop creative thinking in children, the following activities can be used: 1. Brainstorming 2. Stimulating sensitivity to problems. 3. Encouraging ideational fluency. 4. Encouraging originality. 5. Encouraging redefinition ability. It will be noted from the emphasis on creativity that the pendulum had swung from centering educational procedures on developing cognition, memory, and convergent thinking to an emphasis on divergent production and evaluation of ideas. In a strong criticism of education, Silberman (1970) pointed out that the sterile nature of schools emphasizes conformity to rules and curricula. He advocated a school that allowed initiative and creativity to become predominant in the organization of the school environment. Kirk (1972) described special mental qualifications that gifted children possessed and made suggestions for instructional practices which would meet the needs of the gifted and average child: 1. Characteristic: Gifted children learn faster than the average child. Teaching Suggestions: Because of their rapid learning, they requires less repetition to learn the same material. Gifted children do need to drill on some things, but not much of it. They are often impatient with endless drill. They tend to learn rationally rather than by sheer memory and sometimes need to be helped to appreciate the efficiency acquired by learning some things automatically, even though that entails the boring task of repetitive memorizing of facts and tables of numbers. 2. Characteristic: The reasoning ability of gifted children is superior to that of other children. Teaching Suggestions: The fact that gifted children see relationships and grasp ideas more rapidly, creates certain pitfalls for teachers. The child often demands an explanation and a reason which goes into greater detail than the teacher is able to give or is ready to present to the rest of the class. The teacher must be prepared to spend more time explaining to him/her than for the normal child. Activities which challenge the child in reasoning abilities is one way to avoid boring the child and distracting the teacher from teaching the rest of the class. 3. Characteristic: Gifted children usually have a large vocabulary. Teaching Suggestions: Even though the vocabulary used by these children is above the comprehension of the rest of the class, gifted children should be given an opportunity to express themselves, particularly in writing, in reports, and in explanation and discussion in the classroom. 4. Characteristic: The gifted child has a broad fund of information. Teaching Suggestions: Because of his keen memory and ability to relate and retain information, he may be expected to know more than the other children. The teacher should encourage broader approaches, although it may mean some additional homework on the part of the teacher. 5. Characteristic: The gifted child has an insatiable curiosity. Teaching Suggestions: Because he is fascinated with imaginative activities, is interested in science, wants to know the whys and wherefores of many things, the instructional procedure for this child is, not to try to keep him from delving into new problems, but to utilize this curiosity as a motivating factor in further study. 6. Characteristic: The gifted child has a wide range of interests. Teaching Suggestions: Because he often has an intense drive, it is sometimes difficult to get him to put aside what he has begun in order to follow the class routine. Sometimes the routine lesson of the class period is not necessary nor applicable to the more advanced child. If the teacher can interest the gifted child by excusing the child from a routine assignment and allowed to take up some other interest. 7. Characteristic: Gifted children are usually socially adjusted and popular with other children. Teaching Suggestions: Although these children are usually not odd or maladjusted, they may develop a self-concept of being eccentric and different and then attempt to isolate themselves from the group. Teachers can assist in fostering a worthwhile self-concept in children who have these bents. 8. Characteristic: The gifted child may be critical and dissatisfied with his own achievement. Teaching Suggestions: Auto-criticism is an asset, provided the individual does not become critical of everything he does and ceases to produce because he cannot be satisfied with his own productions. Teachers should watch for marked auto-criticism and should help the child to become satisfied with what he can do at each particular stage of development. 9. Characteristic: Gifted children are usually observant. Teaching Suggestions: Advantage should be taken of their ability to perceive things to which other children are often oblivious. Since these children tend to grasp more phenomena from a particular experience, they should be encouraged to interrelate them and correlate them with other experiences. Taking advantage of this tendency, teachers may be able to allow them to go beyond the class in some assignments, or the child may be allowed to do a special study assignment on some experience. 10. Characteristic: Many gifted children show creative abilities. Teaching Suggestions: Divergent suggestions should be received with respect, and the child should be helped to evaluate the applicability of his own suggestions to the situation at hand. It sometimes requires considerable flexibility and creativity on the part of the teacher to transform wild suggestion into valid ones, but the teacher should try to find what value or applicability there may be in the divergent suggestion and recognize that suggestion is the child's own attempt to find a valid suggestion (pp. 153-154). In teaching the gifted child, producing creative ideas is an asset and should be cultivated in them by the teacher. Torrance (1967) suggested a number of ways of doing this. These included: (1) encouraging and reinforcing self-initiated learning on the part of pupils, (2) permitting children to learn on their own, without being given assignment, (3) learning through a responsive environment, in which gifted children's curiosity propels them to learn, (4) revising our concepts of readiness such as requiring the child to wait until a certain age to study specific content, (5) assisting them to search for themselves, their self-concepts, and (6) helping them search for and develop their uniqueness. Torrance (1962) also described numerous teaching skills that can be used by teachers to facilitate creative growth.